Our invention deals with an apparatus for the transfer of articles from one location to another in a row. More specifically, our invention concerns such an apparatus suitable for transporting cylindrical or tubular articles such as some electronic components from one location, where they may be contained in a receptacle in random arrangement, to another location in an aligned manner. The apparatus according to our invention finds a typical application in automatically delivering leadless, tubular ceramic capacitors (i.e., those without leads) to printed circuit boards, or to templates for prearrangement of such electronic components to be attached to printed circuit boards, in the manufacture of printed circuit assemblies.
Heretofore, for attachment of electronic components to printed circuit boards, the usual practice has been to insert the leads of the components into and through holes formed in the boards and to solder the leads to the printed circuit patterns. U.S. Pat. No. 3,907,008 to Bates et al. represents an example of conventional apparatus used for that purpose. With the components mounted in position on printed circuit boards with their leads bent into required shape, however, the resulting circuit assemblies are not so small in size as can be desired.
Of recent development, the leadless, tubular ceramic capacitor provides a partial solution to the above problem. The capacitor comprises a tubular ceramic body and a pair of electrodes formed thereon. The electrodes can be coupled directly to the printed circuit pattern on a circuit board, with the consequent reduction in the size of the circuit assembly. Because of the absence of leads, however, such capacitors do not permit prearrangement with the use of leads, which has been practiced with the usual components having leads. The advent of the apparatus has therefore been awaited which is capable of automatically delivering such leadless electronic components to desired positions on printed circuit boards or on templates for prearrangement of the components.
As fas as we are aware, the prior art closest to our invention is the apparatus for delivering bolt and nut blanks to machines for shaping them into bolts and nuts. The apparatus includes a kind of hopper or chute, which is thrusted into a random pile of the blanks and then turned upward for the delivery of the blanks therethrough. This known apparatus does not lend itself to use with electronic components, however, because of unavoidable damage to the components.